Okay, so here’s the drill.
Step one: find an interesting recipe, such as the one below out of Cooking Club of America.
Step two: read it to Connie and agree it sounds like something to try
Step three: make the drink, take pictures and decide it’s worth keeping and blogging about
Step four: Connie loses the recipe
Step five: reconstruct as best you can and give credit where you think it is due
Now beginning with the latter, I believe that we found this in the aforementioned publication and their credit goes to Johnny Michaels. Thank you, Johnny. Well done.
Connie lost the recipe. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Now, my friends and relatives will tell you that there are times where one could lose a Volkswagen in our home, but as I said, it’s Connie’s fault! ;-))
Really nice drink. Those who never touch “the hard stuff” may not like it, but it meets our criteria: not rocket fuel, interesting mix of flavors and it lends itself to sipping and savoring.
Connie accuses me of turning him into a foodie, but I think we both agree that having the time together to talk about a common interest, to relax and reflect on time we spend together makes us two of the luckiest human beings on the planet. We have fun, not listening to the radio in the car, not sitting in front of the TV, but talking to each other about each other and about something which we have in common. Good food and drink.
And last (originally first) but not least, here’s to Cooking Club of America, and our blogs and the other places where we share our passion and enjoyment.
A Bee in Your Bonnet
(for two)
Ingredients:
3 oz. brandy (we used E&J)
3 oz. gin (we used New Amsterdam)
3 oz. Lemon-Honey Sour (we concocted this from 1 part honey and 1 ½ parts freshly squeezed lemon juice by warming the honey in a microwave until liquid and adding the lemon)
1 teaspoon white crème de menthe or peppermint schnapps (we used DeKuyper Crème de Menthe)
Lemon twist
Add all of the ingredients except the twist into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake, shake, shake. Garnish with the twist. Pout into a chilled martini glass. Toast the one you love and enjoy!
One of my favorite cooking magazines is Cuisine at Home. Last year for the first time ever, I made an entire meal based on one article. The current edition is dog-eared and I've not even clipped a recipe from it yet. We made (and LOVED) the tea smoked ribs. When I saw this recipe I thought it'd be perfect to add to the menu for Samantha's bridesmaid's brunch. I've got to say I was thrilled when my guests focused on the ham quiche and rather ignored this. Better leftovers!
This was in an article on skillet roasting. Once I discovered roasting a few years ago, it rather became my go-to preparation method. I'm even considering roasting a steak. We'll have to see how that one works out for the girl who loves rare meat...
So, what did we think? This was VERY good. It was my favorite of the brunch dishes. Pieces need to be cut really small since it's quite filling. And, the recipe's not kidding that you need to drain the grease. If you're using thick cut bacon like I did, you'll even want to pre-cook it to get some of the grease out of the way. The recipe actually says that thick cut won't work. I'm here to tell you it works just fine if you pre-cook it. The original recipe called for shredded chicken. I used sausage because I didn't want to deal with half of a rotisserie chicken leftover and also didn't want to take the time to poach chicken breasts then shred them. The sausage was a perfect substitute.
You're probably wondering where the name comes from. It was evidently a favorite of the grape pickers in the Burgundy region of France.
Grape Pickers Skillet
Ingredients:
10 oz bacon strips
2 T minced fresh thyme
2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, thinly sliced (or red skin potatoes)
3/4 c shredded Gruyere cheese, divided
1/2 lb pork sausage, browned, drained and crumbled
1 medium red onion, finely diced
1 T minced garlic
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450.
Saute the red onion in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Or, if you're using thick cut bacon and want to be wicked, saute the red onion in some of the bacon fat.
Line an 8" cast iron skillet with bacon.
You'll want the pieces to not overlap in the middle then have about a third of each piece hanging over the edge of the skillet.
The best way to thinly slice the potatoes is a mandolin. Lay half of the potatoes on the bacon and sprinkle them with thyme. Season with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle 1/3 of the shredded Gruyere on the potatoes.
Top the cheese with the sausage then another 1/3 of the cheese.
Layer on the sauteed onions and garlic then the rest of the potatoes
Then add the balance of the cheese.
Wrap the bacon up and over and try not to layer it in the center.
Cook the skillet for 10 minutes on the stovetop on medium heat then cover it with aluminum foil and move it to the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and roast for another 30 minutes. You want the potatoes to be fork tender and the bacon to be nicely browned. Let the skillet rest for 10 minutes. Drain excess fat before serving.
adapted from Cuisine at Home
There are two appetizers that I make every year for our party that are SO easy they take virtually no time at all to prepare. I almost feel guilty putting them out amongst all the dishes I've worked so hard to prepare. But, guess what? The meatballs are one of the most popular dishes. So, I keep putting them out and they keep disappearing.
First off, Magic Meatballs. Connie's name for them. There are half a dozen or more variations on this theme. All of them wind up at about the same place. Sweet sour or barbecue. And, yes, Sams Club sells these wonderful bags of meatballs. They also sell mongo jars of grape jelly. They do not, however, sell chili sauce. Just make sure when you buy that at the grocery that you don't pick up the seafood sauce instead. Voice of experience speaking. The voice with two jars of when in the heck am I ever going to use that seafood sauce in her pantry. Oh, well.
Then, there are the marinated mushrooms. I have half a dozen recipes for marinated mushrooms and other veggies. They all take time to prepare. These don't. Well, unless your mushrooms are particularly covered with the growing medium and they take extra time to rinse off. Yes, I said rinse off. Good old Alton Brown. He did a segment on mushrooms retaining water as a result of being washed off in water as opposed to carefully brushed with a mushroom brush. Saved me from a lifetime of feeling guilty for not brushing off mushrooms. I've washed the things forever. Now, I just don't feel guilty!
Magic Meatballs
Ingredients:
large bag of meatballs
large jar of grape jelly
jar of chili sauce
Directions:
Combine the grape jelly and chili sauce in a large saucepan.
Cook on medium low heat until the jelly has melted.
Pour meatballs into a crockpot. Cover with the sauce and cook on high for about 2 hours. Turn the heat to low when serving them.
Marinated Mushrooms
Ingredients:
Button mushrooms, well cleaned
Italian dressing or Robust Italian dressing
Directions:
Put the mushrooms in a plastic storage container. Cover with the dressing and refrigerate overnight. To serve, spoon the mushrooms out. The dressing will still make great salad dressing.
An aside here - I try to make as much from scratch as possible. It's a good way to control the amount of sodium that we eat. And, I typically prefer homemade to bottled. But, Italian dressing is a staple in my kitchen. It's a fantastic marinade for so many things. The first time I had it as a marinade was at Rich and Juli's house. They threw a party for all the rummage sale helper bees. From that day on, I've used the stuff to marinate.
Corned beef sandwiches from Shapiro's Deli. Wow. One of life's treats. Right up there with the double cheeseburger from Workingman's Friend. So, how can a meat that's so magical when slapped between pieces of rye bread then slathered with spicy mustard taste so incredibly mundane when boiled with cabbage and carrots and potatoes?
We've not had the New Year's Day corned beef and cabbage routine in our family. No, my brother's mother-in-law, Pat, fixes pork and sauerkraut for New Years Day. Probably my favorite meal of the year. She's a wonderful cook and this is her best meal. So, I usually buy a corned beef when they're on sale leading up to New Year's Day, then cook it later in January. That's what I did this year.
So, how do I fight the blahs? Ramp up the flavor with beef broth and red wine. I made this recipe up probably twenty years ago. And, it's been my go-to ever since.
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients:
corned beef
potatoes
carrots
cabbage
garlic cloves
beef broth
red wine
peppercorns
bay leaf
seasoning packet from the corned beef
Directions:
Put your carrots and potatoes in the crockpot. I use the baby carrots.
Then, quartered potatoes. Rarely do I ever peel potatoes. There's so much good in the skins that it just feels wasteful!
Then, put the corned beef on top of the carrots and potatoes. Tuck about a dozen garlic cloves around the corned beef.
Toss in a bay leaf and about a tablespoon of black peppercorns. Add the seasoning packet from the corned beef. It'll have more good stuff like mustard seeds. Pour in a couple of cans of beef broth and one of the little bottles of red wine. It's about 3 cups of beef broth and a cup of red wine.
Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Just before serving the meal, quarter and core the cabbage. Cut it into slices and steam it until it's nice and soft.
Slice the corned beef. Serve with the vegetables and a ladle of the broth.
If you're doing this on the stovetop, you can use a 46 oz can of beef broth and cook the cabbage in with everything else.
Please forgive the pun.
Leftovers! You’ve got to love them. Some are better than others. Some ingredients are almost impossible to work with. Some create unique opportunities. We had one of those, Oh Boy! Connie and I always see drinks calling for champagne as an ingredient. That represents an issue. Unless we have enough folks around, it is absolutely wasteful to bust open a bottle of sparkly to take two sips.
Thank you Samantha! My beautiful niece got married and I hosted a bridesmaids' luncheon. We had some Mimosas. Leftovers, baby! The last bottle got cracked, not finished, and Connie and I were left the unfortunate (wink, wink, nod, nod) task of having dispose of the rest of the wine. Oh, the burdens we must carry!
Connie, my intrepid seeker of drinks recipes, hit his favorite site, drinksmixer.com and found the d’Artagnan, the fourth Musketeer (hence the pun). I am still perplexed about who names these things, but I will give this recipe the following, it is like a Mimosa à la Français. No knockout juice. Notice the small amount of liquor being added. Yes, those are teaspoonfuls! It is the perfect recipe to replace the Mimosa. It truly is a drink for the non-drinker. It has a great undercurrent of taste. Seriously, put it beside a typical Mimosa and I'll bet you the d'Artagnan wins.
I am definitely going to mix up a pitcher of the orange juice and “spices” and the next time Mimosas are on the menu, watch out! Definitely YUM! Try it when you have the chance.
d'Artagnan
(for two)
Ingredients:
2 tsp Armagnac (we used Courvoisier VS Cognac)
2 tsp Grand Marnier® orange liqueur
6 tsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp simple syrup (we use 1:1)
6 oz chilled Champagne (we used our leftover Asti Spumante)
Directions:
In a cocktail shaker, chill the Armagnac, Grand Marnier, OJ and simple syrup over some ice. Strain into 2 champagne flutes.
Top off with the champagne.
Toast your friends and loved ones, saving a special hug for that most significant of all, and enjoy!
Mom and I were chatting the other day about go-to vegetables. Broccoli's at the top of the list. When I was a kid it was normally the frozen variety. Now that the fresh stalks are available year-round, we rarely buy frozen. But, plain old steamed broccoli is a bit boring in my opinion. Connie's too. A few years ago, I tried a recipe for roasted broccoli. It was just amazing. So, we switched our allegiance to roasted. Sometimes I toss it with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sometimes just the olive oil. Other times, I finish it with a bit of lemon juice, soy sauce and sesame seeds. As I was reaching for the olive oil the other evening, I spied the white truffle oil. Hmmm. I wonder how that'd work? Never know if you don't try. I tossed the broccoli with a bit of white truffle oil and roasted it just like always. When it came out of the oven, I sprinkled it with just a little bit of black truffle salt. Heavenly!
Truffle Oil Broccoli
Ingredients
fresh broccoli
truffle oil
truffle salt (optional)
Directions:
Cut the broccoli into florets. Toss with some truffle oil. Roast at 500 for 15-20 minutes or until some of the florets have turned brown and crunchy. Serve sprinkled with a little truffle salt if desired.
Also known as clean out the kitchen for two. We worked at home all day because we had a bit of an ice storm going on. Monday evening we finally left the office and found our windshields totally iced. The driveway at home was slicker than snot. Well, at least that's what I told Mom as I was talking to her when we got home. Connie kind of coasted down the driveway to get the mail. It wasn't quite a boogie. No, that'd be too much movement for that amount of ice. Tuesday, the news folks kept talking about this epic storm. An inch more of freezing rain on top of the half inch we'd gotten Monday night. I made the executive decision. The office was closed for Tuesday. Ah, the next problem. The talking heads were worried about widespread power outages. I went into WORK mode. No blogging. No reading Foodbuzz. Focus on the office. Get as much done as I could before the freezing rain hit. And, since it was sleet pouring from the sky instead of freezing rain, we were in luck.
So, Tuesday evening we had a date planned. It was with our friends Dan and Kathy. We were going to a Brazilian steak house during Devour Downtown. Kathy called and I answered and asked where in the world they were. Told her we'd come downtown because we were worried about finding a parking place. Right. The Mayor had called for no travel unless it's an emergency. We were going nowhere. They were heading to Lowe's to get a tarp for the car. And, they'd gotten bread, milk and whatever.
Instead of Fogo de Chao we ate at home. Lasagna. Clean out the kitchen for two lasagna. We didn't have much cottage cheese so it was two layer. No ricotta. That's ok, it wound up being the best lasagna I've ever made. The only downside? Lots of dirty pots and pans!
Ice Storm Lasagna
Ingredients:
6 lasagna noodles
1 24-26 oz tomato basil pasta sauce
3/4 c red wine
1 1/2 c chopped pre-cooked sausages
3/4 c baby carrots
1/2 c garlic cloves
6 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 c cottage cheese
2 eggs
1 T chopped chives
2 t Italian seasoning
olive oil
1 c shredded romano
2 c shredded mozzarella
Directions:
Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil in the bottom of a large skillet. Toss in the carrots and the garlic cloves.
When they've both gotten nice and browned (the carrots will not be softened at this point,) add the sliced mushrooms.
Cook the lasagna noodles according to the package directions. While they're cooking, brown the sausages in a large saucepan.
In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, eggs, chives and Italian seasoning.
When the lasagna noodles are cooked, drain them and set them aside. At that point, preheat your oven to 350. When the sausages are just about browned, pour half the red wine in to deglaze the pan. Scrape well to get all the good browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour in the pasta sauce. Take the other half of the red wine and pour it into the pasta sauce jar. Put the lid on and give it a good shake, then pour that all into the sausages. Take a scissors and cut the carrots into bite-sized pieces.
Pour the vegetables into the tomato sauce/sausage mixture and stir well. Now, you're ready to put the lasagna together. Schmear some of the sauce mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 ovenproof baking dish. It's not a full layer but just enough to keep the noodles from sticking.
Lay three lasagna noodles on the sauce. Coat the lasagna noodles with half of the cottage cheese/egg mixture.
Top with half of the remaining sauce mixture.
Sprinkle on half of the romano cheese.
Repeat. Bake at 350 for 45 min. Top with the mozzarella cheese and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and browned.
